Fayette Lawmaker Moves To Repeal Alabama's NIL Law

TUSCALOOSA, AL — State Rep. Kyle South has proposed legislation that would repeal a bill signed into law last year regarding Alabama's student athletes and compensation for use of the student athlete's name, image, or likeness (NIL).

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First reported by Mary Sell of Alabama Daily News in Montgomery, the three-page House Bill 76 passed the House State Government Committee without any debate on Wednesday.

South, a Republican from Fayette, sponsored the House version of the bill during the 2021 Legislative Session and said the legislation repealing it is expected to be brought to a floor vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. While viewed as preemptive in hindsight, South said expediency was the main reason a state NIL law was pushed through the Legislature last year.

"The biggest reason for the rush now is recruiting just opened up this week after bowl games and we need to make sure we have all the tools and our student athletes are not put at a disadvantage," he said in a phone interview on Friday.

As Sell reported for the online publication, State Rep. Barbara Boyd, an Anniston Democrat, said during the committee hearing that the need to repeal the 2021 law should serve as a reminder to lawmakers to take their time on impactful pieces of policy.

Simply put, Alabama's NIL legislation was signed into law before the NCAA provided its own set of blanket guidelines that are viewed as less restrictive on what student-athletes can do.

Indeed, the NCAA guidelines state that: "College athletes who attend a school in a state without an NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image and likeness." This removes the need for states to have laws on the books to govern their state institutions with respect to NCAA compliance.

South went on to say the guidelines passed during the last Legislative Session put Alabama at a competitive disadvantage with other states like Michigan and Texas — both states that did not pass state-level NIL legislation.

"Our expectation last year was the NCAA would let state law become the rule," he said. "Instead [the NCAA} deviated and came up with their own less restrictive set of rules."

Alabama adopted its state NIL policy in April 2021, when it was signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey, while the NCAA Board of Trustees adopted its uniform interim policy the following June. Repealing the state law, South said, would then put Alabama on a level playing field with other states opting for the more broad set of NCAA standards.

After acknowledging the divisive nature of the new NIL ecosystem in college athletics, South said he believed opposition to the concept of student-athletes making money apart from scholarships is "short-sighted" and something that won't be changing anytime soon.

He then cited Auburn gymnast and Olympic standout Sunisa Lee, who he referred to as the most marketable college athlete in Alabama and someone who would otherwise not be able to benefit from her well-deserved fame — something established before the Olympic Gold Medal winner ever set foot on the Auburn campus.

"It's the new landscape of things," South said. "I think the goal for the NCAA will be to narrow down the focus moving forward. But I think this bill will be fast-tracked so we aren't putting our student-athletes at a disadvantage."

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